The invention is directed generally to an electrical connector and more specifically to an electrical connector having improved inductive and capacitive coupling balancing characteristics.
It has long been desired to improve the electrical performance of particular components or whole systems by minimizing crosstalk therein. There is a reduction in both near end crosstalk (NEXT) and far end crosstalk (FEXT) when both the net inductive and capacitive crosstalk components are reduced in magnitude.
Past efforts to minimize the inductive component of crosstalk have in some cases included altering the length and orientation of the connector contacts to provide offsetting inductive coupling to preexisting inductive coupling present in the plug or elsewhere in the connector. However, the manufacturing processes required to produce contacts having special lengths and orientation are expensive. In addition, such contacts have been relatively long which causes excessive phase shift at high frequency. In addition, the inductance between such contacts are subject to excess variability. In addition or instead of such contact designs, past efforts to minimize crosstalk utilizing phase-offsetting coupling between pairs on a printed circuit board (PCB) have primarily utilized capacitive coupling. As such, better ways of balancing both inductive and capacitive coupling thereby minimizing crosstalk are sought.